Episode 5 Flipping couches and day trading Trader's Talk with upcoming trader Griffin Ouellette

In Episode 5 of the TraderDane podcast, I welcome my first guest, Griffin, and we discuss connecting through Austin Silver’s Black Shirt Club, carrying forward accountability habits via a shared Discord, and the value of community and mentorship in what is ultimately a personal trading journey. Griffin shares his path toward entrepreneurship, including running a small business flipping couches and funneling revenue into prop accounts while also day trading. We talk about keeping trading simple, avoiding constant strategy tweaks after losses, and needing many repetitions to assess performance. Griffin describes focusing on trending days and bounces around VWAP levels, and shares his short-term goal of earning payouts and a longer-term vision centered on freedom, balancing trading with work, and growing over the next 3–12 months.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Before we get started, I want to just say that anything you hear me or any of the guests on this podcast say is to be considered for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a financial advisor. You should do your own research before taking financial decisions. And with that, please enjoy the podcast. Okay, here we go. So um so this is episode five of the Trader Dame podcast. And this is the first time I've been joining, I've been joined by a guest. So this is uh Griffin. Griffin, you have to pronounce your last name for me at some point because uh it it it sounds French.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah, it's French. It's Griffin Olet.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Okay, yeah. I do know a little bit of French. It's do you have French ancestry or something like that?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Uh maybe way down the line. Maybe I don't know. Welcome to the show. My family I know is from Michigan. Awesome. Yeah, yeah. Welcome to the show anyway. Um I'm happy to be here. We've been trying to get it going.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yep. Thanks for thanks for being on and taking the time up. Um so as you know, Griff, um, this uh the Trader Lane podcast, I'm just starting out with this. Uh and and I really want to focus like on my my Instagram platform, and so I want to focus on upcoming new traders, but traders that are also serious about what they're doing and and really want to turn it into something. So not just, you know, uh not just a hobby, not just YOLO wing, but someone who really wants to um to to make something of it. And I've I've I mean we've known each other for a couple of months now through through Austin Silver's Black Shirt Club where we both joined uh and we're there for uh are you still there actually? Or you're not you're up, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Nope, I was there. I left uh the week after you, both there for three months.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So we're graduated, alumni. Um but it was a good time there, and and maybe we can also talk about that in a in a bit. But um but basically we've just we've stayed in touch. Uh we are we have like our own little Discord and we've been been chatting, also keeping each other accountable uh with the um with our daily report cards and so on. So picking up some of the good habits that we picked up from the uh from the black shirt. But just rewinding back, uh and and and I want to so focusing on uh you know how you got into trading, uh what does trading mean to you and so on. So so so could you just to begin with introduce yourself and just talk a little bit about what got you to where you are now?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Yeah, so obviously, you know, my name's Griffin. I'm uh I'm 21 years old, and uh I found trading uh must have been 2023, and uh I was just I just graduated high school. So, you know, I was I was going to college uh and it was the summer before I went into college, and and I always knew deep down, like I always told my parents from the time I was young, you know, I want to own a business or I want to be my own boss or something of that sort. Told them, you know, I'm not going to college, and they say, Well, you you're gonna go. So ended up there, knowing, you know, not really knowing what I wanted to do, but knowing I wanted to do something on my own. And so I came across, you know, all the gurus with the Lambos, like I feel like many of us did. Yeah, right. You know, you see those, and it's intriguing, of course. So I watched tons of tutorials, you know, got into the whole Forex side of things for a few months. Um, I was just watching whatever YouTube, whatever content I could, um, putting it all together, you know, like six strategies drawing trend lines, whatever, whatever I could get together for me to see a setup. I was paper trading for maybe maybe two or three months, and until I could get the could get the account profitable, slinging paper trades, and then I ended up opening my own account. This is before I ever learned anything of futures, prop firms, anything. I opened the account with 250 bucks. Think I you know I was putting on five dollars of risk per trade, lost maybe 20 bucks or something, I think. You know, and it's hurt. I bet you hurt, right? Oh yeah, oh totally. It hurt more than it should have, I'll tell you that. So and I was like, okay, uh, yeah. I I think what I thought in my head was I need more money to be able to make this happen, right? I need I need capital to actually, you know, I was a broke college student, so I I had not not the money I needed to to throw to throw up to actually make some real money. So I thought I'll come back to this whenever I have more money, I'm out of college, whatever. And I went golfing with some buddies, and uh one of them that I had never met before, uh, in summer 2024, I would say this was a this was a year after, and I had been quit for maybe half a year. Um one of them was uh full-time trader, and he had his own coaching program and all this. And I I didn't know much about it, but I was like, Oh yeah, I like trading too. And and uh he starts teaching me and uh two of my other buddies, telling us about prop firms and how he takes these payouts and copy trading and whatever, and and uh so we stayed in touch with him a little bit, ask him questions here and there, obviously, trying not to like bug him, annoy him or anything, but he put us on on the uh the apex accounts like back when that I think they were a new firm at the time. They were like the hot thing, and so all I knew was was buying two evals and slinging them opposite ways on news to try to get them passed.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

So nice the stop orders on either side, and then uh just just slinging them and and so that's what I would do.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

No, no strategy and no uh no really like good form. It was all gambling, right? So all I all I wanted to do was was pass an eval. And from then on out I thought, okay, all you have to do is hit the profit target. Easy payouts, it's easy money, is is what the thought was. And so I did that for a couple months, ended up quitting again because that wasn't working, obviously. You know, you can't you can't expect that to lead to profits. And then the the two buddies that I was with at the time, last January, or it was the end of January, so just over a year ago, we decided to um start hopping in discourse together in the morning and and trading features on the just New York session. And and it was funny. I have so many memories from those days where none of us knew what we were talking about, and we'd just be thr like all e balls, just like, all right, I'm long. We're like, What you're long? I'm going long, and just blowing accounts and just being stupid. And um one of them actually was was Ryan. You know Ryan from the Discord. So yep.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Um you had your own little Discord there.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yep, yep, just the three of us, and none of us knew what we were doing. We had no strategy, and that's when that's when I realized I need structure here. I because I knew this is what I wanted to do. You know, I feel like as soon as I placed my first few trades, I think I've I kind of like fell in love with it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 6:40

And what can you can you put some more words so that I I feel exactly the same way? It's just sometimes it's it's it's a little bit intangible, right? The passion. What what what made it click?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

I think maybe you know what it could have been is is the first few like winning trades and just seeing the dollar value go up so fast and realizing that if I had structure, if I had something, you know, if I really spent time learning this and perfecting my craft, like I was like, wow, I could really turn this into something. And I just loved watching the charts and what's going on, seeing how it moves. Like, I feel like a lot of the traders that that would hear this podcast will will be like, yeah, like I had that same feeling, right? And that's why they're here, and that's why they're seeking out information the same way I did. I was like, okay, there's no I have no structure here, I have not no knowledge of what's going on. I at least well at first I thought I did until I realized I couldn't pass an eval. So that's when I was like, I need a mentor, I need something. So I I was listening to podcasts, and that's when I found the day trading show, uh Austin Silver, and I I just loved what he had to say. And um, he's one of the podcasts he was talking about futures 101 and 2.0, and and uh I'm like, oh, free courses. And so I watched him, loved it, hopped on the streams, and I and I haven't left since then, and that's been where I've been.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

There's a sincerity to it, right? Where I mean you can easily tell at this point, at least where you and I are, you can easily tell the difference between scammers, you know, people that are just trying to sell signals or courses or whatever, no know nothing about what they're doing. And then people like Austin, who are actually who has a product, it's it's it's verified, you know. You you you can tell that these people also from the live stream, they know what they're doing and they are profitable. And that that's really um that's fascinating in itself, right? And that's also what what attracts people like you and me, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Oh yeah. And they they're so genuine, you know, showing losses. They and they and I feel the one thing that really stuck out to me is I feel like they really want to see everybody win. It's not about just showing, oh, we take payouts and we're the best. It's like they want to see you succeed as well. They want to push you, you know, test your limits. And that's the kind of community that I think I needed or that I was looking for, you know.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

So do you do you feel like you still need that? Is is that a continuous thing, or or do you also feel like because when I came out a few weeks ago out of the BSC, I felt like, okay, I now I need to spend a bit of time, maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months, uh locking in, like on my own. It's sure with our little Discord there and we have our chat going on and so on, but but really it's because trading is also a personal journey, right? It's you against the markets and it's you against yourself. So, how do you feel about that? What does does the community still matter as much? And do you still feel like you need the mentorship and the uh like uh the role modeling and so on that comes with that?

SPEAKER_00 9:29

I don't so I think uh the reason I left is because I don't think I necessarily need the uh the coaching side of it anymore. I think uh I'm a little bit past that to where I need to be, you know, a coach for my trades or whatever. But I think the important part and the main reason I joined in the first place, and what I still feel like I need in my trading journey is is a community, just having those people around me. And that's the biggest takeaway I made from there is I made you know trading friends online like you and the other guys, just people I can talk to every day, be held accountable, just other people going through the same journey as you um is so much easier than than pushing yourself and trying, you know, just trying to push through on your own. It's like I I feel like everyone needs to find a community, whether you you pay for it or or you just hit message people on Instagram until you find some buddies.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Yeah, it doesn't really matter how it comes upon you, right? It's just and you you need that. I mean a lot of us need that. It's it's it's too lonely if you don't, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

For sure, it's a lonely business. And I think uh I don't know many people who who have made it there on their own, and I'm sure some people do, but I I don't know. I don't think I could.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

No, no, that's not how I function either. So so so Griff, I I was just just circling back to something you said in the beginning. Um you you said you wanted to when you sort of you didn't necessarily want to go to college uh and and all that, uh you know the the the the beaten path, if you will. Um but but so you said something about entrepreneurship, like doing your own thing. How is how do you feel like trading is that because you're not starting a business per se, right? You're not it's it's not a company as such, right? But but so what what does trading mean to you in terms of starting something on your your on your own? Because you also have a day job, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

I actually my my uh day job is I I flip couches. You have your own business? So yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Can you because I'm Danish, I I'm not necessarily I don't know what flipping couches mean. Can you can you elaborate?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

I don't know if it's super common, but uh I did find it on social media a few years back. But I I buy and I resell couches. So that's what I do full time is I search for deals, send low balls, whatever, and I okay and I I bought a truck, and so I go it all the time, whenever I can, throughout any day, I'm going and I'm and I'm picking up couches and then and then I'm selling them for more money, and that's how I that's how I'm gonna do it. So you are doing your own thing by trading. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yes, yeah, and then you funnel that that uh you set shall we say revenue into into prop accounts and so exactly also that's what keeps me going.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

I I love what I got right now, and and that's the big thing with trading too, is I feel like for me, the idea of always just working under somebody, having somebody telling you what to do, what time to do it. You're just I I always never liked the idea of just being being bossed. I wanted to have my life be mine. Not that, not that people with full-time jobs like some people absolutely love it, and that's their thing, and that's great. But for me, it's just always been not for me, and I've had you know a few jobs, warehouse jobs, whatever, and and uh I I really just love the idea of building something up myself, like trading or like my couch flipping business and being able to to do it on my own time and and see myself improve. Um I feel like that's that's what I love about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

I love I love the self-awareness there. I mean, I've spent I'm 40 years old, I've spent 15 years since graduating uh uh in in corporates and and just you know, like you say, being bossed, being bossed around, like have you know, fitting into a hierarchy, all the organizational politics and all that, and and at this point now I'm 40, I'm sick of it, right? And and that's that's the that's the journey I had to go through to to realize that that basically that I want the same thing as you do, right? Like I want to create something of my own, um which is which is really cool. You can you can have that self-awareness at the age of 21. Excellent. Um so so so Griff, um you and I both know how we trade, but can you tell a little bit uh for the listener about what so what do you actually do when you're day trading? How what's your strategy? What are your setups? Um we're gonna assume that people have a little bit of knowledge of you know technical analysis, price charts, and so on. So if you deep dive a little bit on how you actually trade.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

For sure. So yeah, I'm I'm like you, I'm trading with VWAPs, uh, mainly focusing on the New York VWAP. Um and I like the what works for me well, what I trade best is uh trending days since you know I'm on Eastern time, 93 9:30 New York open, and I'm looking out at opening ranges too. Um same as you, everything I learned from from Austin and the Blackshirt Club and all that. So uh I'm still sticking with I stand by every everything I learned from them. So uh usually I'm waiting for the 15-minute opening range to set, and I'm not trading before we break out of either side. And um I like to see some some sort of trend forming in the day. So usually I wouldn't say I'm I'm placing a trade before 10. On the majority of days, I'm not placing a trade before 10. Uh, and I'll I'll wait to see some trend forming um following the 15-minute trend. I like to see a pullback and a bounce off of the New York VWAP. That's my favorite setup. And so when I see it hit the New York VWAP turn, I like I like to you know kind of play around with it, turn, extend off. Yeah, and and that's that's when I'm entering is the bounce, and that that's my number one setup. And obviously, you can go down the rabbit hole of breaks and uh uh you know, anything, high a day, VWAPs, and throw on what you know, start a year, whatever VWAP you want, you can throw on there and get get really down and dirty with it, you know. But I I like to stick to my my core setup, so I'm usually taking one trade a day.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

And you said it, right? You said a rabbit hole because I mean we've got some of our other buddies on the Discord where experimenting. I'm also experimenting with a few different things, but really you also uh trading needs to be simple, right? And it but it's it's it's easier said than done because you you feel like the the minute you fail something, or the minute I would I shouldn't say fail, the minute you lose a trade, um, you feel like you gotta tweak something, but you don't really. And I I really admire what you're doing in terms of sticking to sticking to your guns, right? Like stick sticking to the basic setups and keep repeating them because that's what it's all about, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Yeah, thank you. Um yeah, there's you know, and I don't, you know, anybody who wants to do whatever they're doing, right? I think it's great. So yeah, I see the other guys learning new things and and really pushing themselves. And that's what I think, that's what I think they're doing is pushing themselves to improve. For me, I've always found the more I complicate my trading, the worse that I do personally. So I know I know my setups and I've taken them over the span of a year or whatever. So I have the statistics that show you know what what works well for me and and it's starting to come together and work nicely. So at this point in my trading, I don't want to change anything up. I'm not looking to add new setups or or take away old ones or look into other strategies. Um because I don't want to I don't want to get into you know book map and and right all these levels and everything can everything go together and all of a sudden you're taking one trade because of this, but the other, you know, one of your other setups says you shouldn't be in, and and there's just too much going on, and that has always distracted me. So I like what I'm doing now, and for now, I'm gonna stick to it, stick to what's working. Um, but who knows? In the future, I'll I'm willing to adapt, of course. Of course.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Of course, and and and and I think statistically, we are working with probabilities, right? You you also need a lot of you need a lot of reps, you need a lot of um consistent data to even know if you're doing things right or wrong, right? So you need hundreds of hundreds of trades to say, okay, this worked, this didn't work. Um do you find you are you say you like the trending days and the bounces on the VWAPs. Do you do you do you favor longs or shorts? Like if you see a sell-off out of the open, will you be just as inclined to take the shorts?

SPEAKER_00 17:20

I don't think so. You know, I do favor longs, of course. It's just since I've started, generally speaking, markets are trending higher. Not always, but generally speaking. Not lately. Yeah, I no, no, definitely not lately. We've been we've been very sideways, I feel, which makes it tough. But uh, I like you know, my my favorite days are when I come in and I and I look at the 15-minute chart and I can see clear trend, which has not been happening recently, and I can come in with a bias and say, Yeah, I like the longs today. I'm not gonna like the shorts, and unless we break under this level, I'm looking for longs, right? And those are the days where I really have a clear vision of okay, if it does this, comes to here, you know, you sort of have a game plan. You're like, if it does here, I'm gonna long here. This is what I'm looking at, right? And then it will. And and you get your clean, easy wins, and you're off the desk and you you move on to whatever you're doing for the day. Um, and so shorts are are a little harder for me to read sometimes. But if obviously, you know, starting the day, we have VWAP alignment and we're selling off, I'm gonna get involved, right? I'm gonna find find something ideally. So cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Very good. Um, do you use any like uh additional data? So you know me, right? I'll I'll be having Mac7 on the side, and uh I'll also use NQ as a sort of a confluence indicator. Uh where is NQ hitting its its uh key levels like the VWAP and so on. Do you use any additional information like that? Or be you're trading ES, right? Yep, yes. You just is is that all the information you have uh with the VWAP?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

So I like to not overcomplicate and and get distracted by what I'm looking at, but I do look at the mag 7 and I do look at NQ, and that's that's about it. But I'll I'll look at them, kind of see what they're doing. But I don't think I I let it stop me from taking a trade. If I don't like what Mac7's doing, I don't and I see my perfect setup forming on ES, but let's say for longs, but you know, uh the Max 7 sinking below VWAPS, I'm not gonna let it keep me out of a trade, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

That makes perfect sense. Perfect sense. Cool. Uh very cool to talk trading, and we could do this forever. Um conscious of time, uh Griff, I want to just uh finish off by hearing. So you're 21 years old. By the time you're my age, you're a millionaire from trading. I'm sure you are. Uh um so what what is the outlook for you, Griff? What so what do you how do you see the next say three, six, twelve months? And and where do you want to take your your business, your trading, uh, and also personally?

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Uh yeah, good question. So my short term, I guess, goal with trading that I've thought since the beginning is I would like to be able to make an extra $2,000 a month. So that's kind of been the goal, right? If I can add an extra $2,000 a month from trading, I'll be ecstatic. You know what I mean? So that that's the goal. That's where I want to get to right now. That's the idea. That's that's just what's been in my head. That number for whatever reason, it's you know, it's not outrageously big, it's not a hard target to hit. But I think um that's just a number for me that that I want to be at. That's a goal that I've set. But obviously I don't want to stop there, right? So I don't want to hit that and just stop progressing. Ten years from now, I would love to have, you know, even five years from now, consistent 10k months would be great. Um, but if not, and I can just add some side income, that's fine too. Um, but I would love to be able to take trading full time. That's that's the goal, right? And um, I love what I do with couches, selling couches as well. So, and that's on my own time. So I guess my my dream at the moment is to be able to make money, make consistent money trading, and do what I want to do with the rest of my day, whether you know get off, go to the gym, sell a couple couches.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Um it's about freedom as well, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Exactly. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Do you have a mortgage or anything like that? Like you do you have too like a lot of commitments that you need to sort of you need that's stable income or nope, I have uh I have no debt, nothing. So also that's a good story.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Right now I'm trying to uh set myself up well and keep it going, you know. But uh so the goal is to start start taking some payouts, start stacking some wins, just like everybody.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you haven't you haven't taken a payout yet. And I'm not I'm not flexing here. I'm just uh because I took mine at first one a couple of days. No, no, no, no, but you're on the right track. Um so so that's the short term goal. And and and I guess what I'm hearing you say is uh because because right now you actually have a good balance, you're able to trade the New York session, you've got your day job. You can you can manage those things and juggle the whole thing day to day.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Yeah. No, it works out well. Everything I got going work. I have a you know sort of a daily schedule that that is pretty similar every day. Get off the desk, go to the gym, sell couch the rest of the day. Uh it's just it works really well for me to be able to trade. And I'm so grateful because you know, if I were to not have started my my couch flipping business, I would have a job right now that starts at nine and I wouldn't I wouldn't be trading right now, you know. I start like I'd be working through through the session and trying to what trade Asia and it just would not work out well. So I'm really grateful for what I have going right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

And you'd be fatigued once that happens, right? I mean it's it that's the thing. I was one of my main struggles is I'll be I'll be coming home from work and then I'll be trading the New York session because I'm on European time rap. And so, well, that's really cool. I think um I think we'll wrap it up here. Uh Griff, it's been awesome talking to you, uh, getting a little bit to know a little bit about you, but also your trading and so on, how you trade. Um, and I really thank you for coming on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Yeah, thanks for having me, bro. I'll I I'll be very happy to do it again in the future. Hopefully, you know, uh maybe a year from now we do another podcast and we're both taking some payouts and let's manifest.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

I'll I'll put a uh calendar invite in there for a year from now and then we'll do an episode too. Should we do that?

SPEAKER_00 23:25

For sure. 100%. Let's see where we are a year from now. Thank you so much. All right, but thanks for having me on.